Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Dusseldorf, Germany (CNN)Reports say video found in the wreckage on a French mountainside shows the nightmarish final seconds of Germanwings Flight 9525, but a police spokesman said the accounts were "completely wrong."

French magazine Paris Match and German newspaper Bild reported that a video recovered from a cell phone at the wreckage site showed the inside of the plane moments before it crashed.

"One can hear cries of 'My God' in several languages. Metallic banging can also be heard more than three times, perhaps of the pilot trying to open the cockpit door with a heavy object. Towards the end, after a heavy shake, stronger than the others, the screaming intensifies. Then nothing," Paris Match reports.

The two publications described the video, which they said was found by a source close to the investigation, but did not post it on their websites.

WNU Editor: The French prosecutor responsible for overseeing the French criminal investigation into the crash told AP Tuesday night that no cell phone video has been found from the plane .... Prosecutor: No video of final seconds before Germanwings crash (CBS/AP). \but considering the details of this case .... nothing will surprise me if it is true.

For years, the great nations of Europe spent huge sums of money to build their military might. They assembled themselves into blocs, all the better to play a dangerous game of power politics. Slowly, surely, they were stumbling toward war.In June 1914, an assassin shot the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the powder keg was lit. The results were disastrous.The Middle East today looks frighteningly similar to the Europe of the early 20th Century.For years, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have competed—Iran, as the champion of the Shia Islamic world, the House of Saud as the de facto leader of the Sunni world.

WNU Editor: We are still a long way-off from such a scenario .... but the trends are disturbing.

The Obama administration revealed that the United States was participating in yet another Middle East military intervention via a press release from the spokesperson of the National Security Council (NSC). This time, it’s Yemen. Late Wednesday evening, March 25, the White House posted a statement declaring: “President Obama has authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council]-led military operations.”

There was no prime-time address by the president or secretary of defense — the only two people in the national command authority who can lawfully direct the U.S. military to engage in hostilities. There was no statement from the Department of Defense, the federal agency responsible for those armed forces providing the support to the GCC, or comment from U.S. Central Command, the combatant command whose geographic area of responsibility includes the GCC members and Yemen itself. Rather, the NSC spokesperson simply let us know.

U.S. officials subsequently emphasized that aiding partner countries in their intervention into Yemen is simply “providing enabling support,” as Brig. Gen. Michael Fantini, Middle East principal director of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, told a House hearing last week. And the NSC made it clear that “U.S. forces are not taking direct military action in Yemen.”

Yet, make no mistake, the United States is a combatant in this intervention.

WNU Editor: I concur .... the U.S. is involved in another Middle East war .... and in this war there are no specific goals or objectives, no clear courses of action, and no idea on what the "end state" or exit strategy would entail. There has also been no debate or vote in Congress, no mention from the U.S. President or the Pentagon, and little if any media coverage on what the U.S. military and/or intelligence community may end up doing in Yemen. In fact .... I do not even know why we are involved in this fight.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Negotiators from the United States, Iran and five other nations extended their deadline until Wednesday as they struggled to agree on a preliminary accord to limit Tehran’s nuclear program.With a previously enunciated deadline just hours away, and after a full day of talks with most of the foreign ministers from the seven countries involved in the negotiations, an American official said that they were still working to resolve several issues.“We’ve made enough progress in the last days to merit staying until Wednesday,” said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman. “There are several difficult issues remaining.”

WNU Editor: My guess is that US Sec. of State Kerry is staying for one more day to try and bring back something "concrete" to Washington to show to Congress that progress is being made. My prediction .... he will have nothing for the simple reason that the Iranians are not willing to budge on giving up their enrich material nor are they interested in scaling back their research. In turn .... the U.S. Congress will now need to decide if they should impose additional sanctions against Iran when they get back from their recess in two weeks.

More News On The Iranian Nuclear Talks Being Extended For One More Day

Now is the time to praise Javad Zarif. Whatever you might think of Iran's foreign minister, he knows how to bargain.

With a final announcement due any moment from negotiations over Iran's nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland, Iran appears to be doing quite well for itself.

After all, before the real negotiations began, Iran won vague recognition -- from the U.S. and five other great powers -- that it has a right to enrich uranium. Between 2008 and 2012, the United Nations Security Council passed five resolutions sanctioning Tehran for violating the nuclear non-proliferation treaty by operating centrifuges at facilities it had not bothered to tell the International Atomic Energy Agency about.

Winning may be just the easy part in a country plagued by insurgency, corruption and economic malaise

In a radical reversal of fortune, presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari has proven that the fourth run is the charm when it comes to being elected President of Nigeria. In an election plagued by technical mishaps, Buhari has sealed victory over incumbent Goodluck Jonathan by little more than two million votes in the tightest race the country has seen since the end of military rule in 1999.

Peruvian Prime Minister Ana Jara was forced to step down after losing a vote of confidence in Congress on Monday.Ms Jara was censured over allegations that Peru's intelligence agency had for years gathered information on leading figures in business and politics.President Ollanta Humala must now select a new prime minister and cabinet.It is considered the biggest crisis of his presidency since he took office in July 2011.In Peru, the president is the head of the executive, but analysts say having his number two deposed by the opposition-dominated Congress is a sign of his waning influence.A recent opinion poll by Ipsos suggested Mr Humala's popularity rating had dropped to 25%.

CAIRO — As America talks to Iran, Saudi Arabia is lashing out against it.

The kingdom, Iran’s chief regional rival, is leading airstrikes against an Iranian-backed faction in Yemen; backing a blitz in Idlib, Syria, by jihadists fighting the Iranian-backed Assad regime; and warning Washington not to allow the Iranian-backed militia to capture too much of Iraq during the fight to roll back the Islamic State, according to Arab diplomats familiar with the talks.

Through Egypt, a major beneficiary of Saudi aid, the kingdom is backing plans for a combined Arab military force to combat Iranian influence around the region. With another major aid recipient, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia is also expected to step up its efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, potentially setting off an arms race in the region.

All this comes just a few weeks after the death of King Abdullah and the passing of the throne to a new ruler, King Salman, who then installed his 34-year-old son Mohamed in the powerful dual roles of defense minister and chief of the royal court.

WNU Editor: When Saudi King Abdullah was in charge he always had a patient approach towards the U.S. as well as how the Saudi kingdom should conduct its affairs in the Middle East. His successors have clearly adopted a different policy and strategy .... and we are now seeing it in Yemen.

Washington (CNN)An Iranian military observation aircraft flew within 50 yards of an armed U.S. Navy helicopter over the Persian Gulf this month, sparking concern that top Iranian commanders might not be in full control of local forces, CNN has learned.

The incident, which has not been publicly disclosed, troubled U.S. military officials because the unsafe maneuver could have triggered a serious incident.

It also surprised U.S. commanders because in recent months Iranian forces have conducted exercises and operations in the region in a professional manner, one U.S. military official told CNN.

"We think this might have been locally ordered," the official said.

WNU Editor: We are only hearing the U.S. side of this story .... and while I trust the U.S. far more than I do Iran .... I sense that there is more to this story than what we are being told.

In what has been the world's longest negotiation (we are only modestly joking: the Iran P5+1 nuclear "talks" started in 2013 and have yet to achieve anything) one whose "rolling deadline" has been breached time and time again, it appears that with today's latest deadline just hours away, the most likely outcome is another deadline extension even though, as Reuters puts it, "Iran and six world powers ramped up the pace on Tuesday in negotiations over a preliminary deal on Tehran's nuclear program, while officials cautioned that any agreement would likely be fragile and incomplete."

The negotiations, which we have largely ignored covering as the past has abundantly shown that nothing ever actually gets done except for a lot of talking, posturing, gesticulating and pizza-ordering, have seen the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China trying to break an impasse in the talks, which are aimed at stopping Iran from gaining the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb in exchange for easing international sanctions that are crippling its economy.

WNU Editor: I am sure that U.S. - China - Russian politics and diplomacy between themselves are involved n these talks .... but Iran has always marched to its own tune, and I expect them to continue doing just that.

(Reuters) - Nigeria's opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) declared an election victory on Tuesday for former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari and said Africa's most populous nation was witnessing history with its first democratic transfer of power."The people of Nigeria have taken over," an ecstatic APC spokesman Lai Mohammed told Reuters at the house in the capital where Buhari, a sandal-wearing Muslim ascetic watching the results on television."This is the first time in Nigeria that a sitting government will be voted out of power using purely democratic means."

Rebel fighters, one of them carrying a flag used by al Qaeda's Nusra Front, celebrate at the Mihrab roundabout in the Idlib city centre, after they took control of the area on March 28, 2015. Reuters/Khalil Ashawi

The Syrian civil war began as a battle between Syrian opposition groups and President Bashar Assad’s regime, but the battleground quickly evolved into a kaleidoscope of brigades and battalions fighting each other, the regime and terrorist organizations like the Islamic State group. And now, four years into a conflict that is increasingly pulling in foreign fighters and international powers, one Syrian faction has emerged as the most effective one fighting Assad: al Qaeda. Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), has capitalized on the threat of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, and the increasing ineffectiveness of moderate rebel groups. And it has succeeded on the ground thanks to a military strategy that relies on partnerships with other rebel groups, many of whom JN said it would be willing to include in a post-Assad Syrian government.

WNU Editor: One of the reasons why President Bashar Assad’s regime has been able to stay in power for so long has been (and still is) the disunity among his opponents .... both politically and militarily. If these rebel groups are able to unify, the military dynamics will definitely change on the ground .... but politically .... the idea of Al Qaeda being victorious in Syria .... I cannot even begin listing the nightmare scenarios that are going through my mind on that prospect.

(Reuters) - Iraqi troops aided by Shi'ite paramilitaries have driven Islamic State out of central Tikrit, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said on Tuesday, but the fight to retake all of Saddam Hussein's home town continued.Government forces have been in a month-long fight for the city, which became a bastion for the Sunni jihadists who are at war with Baghdad and have been targeted by U.S.-led air strikes.Hundreds of insurgents ready to fight to the death are still holed up in Salahuddin province's capital city and at least three neighborhoods remain under Islamic State control, along with a palace complex in the city's north.The further Iraqi forces push into the city, the greater the risk of ambushes.

WNU Editor: I have heard these claims before (more than once) .... so I will wait until independent journalists are reporting from the center of Tikrit before stating that this is true.

The surprise assault is meant to stem the rapid advance of the Zaydi Shia militia that, allied with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, has brought the Sunni Gulf allied-Yemeni government to the brink of extinction.

SANAA, Yemen — Artillery fire in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, the last stronghold of the embattled Yemeni government, killed 26 people overnight Tuesday, news reports said.Iran-allied Houthi rebels along with allied army units are pressing in on the outskirts of the city despite six days of Saudi-led airstrikes meant to halt their advance. A Health Ministry official said 26 people were killed in that push, the Reuters news agency reported.The deaths came one day after an airstrike killed dozens of people at a camp for displaced people in northern Yemen, in what appeared to be the single deadliest attack since the Saudi-led coalition started bombing its neighbor to target Shiite insurgents advancing across the country.

Negotiations on curbing Iran's nuclear program entered their final hours Tuesday before a self-imposed midnight deadline, with teams from Iran and a group of six world powers trying to resolve 18 months of talks into the outline of a comprehensive agreement.Officials in Lausanne, Switzerland, expressed a mix of hope and caution about the work that remained to overcome differences on pieces such as how long the deal should last, how quickly economic sanctions against Iran should be lifted, and what to do if Iran violates the terms.

WNU Editor: My prediction .... if past talks are any indication .... expect an announcement that they will continue their talks in a month or two.

Unclear whether statement would qualify as political framework, the goal that ministers from seven states set themselves to reach by Tuesday at midnight

Foreign ministers in Lausanne are reported to be close to a joint statement on a partial agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme that would leave some difficult areas to be negotiated in the coming months.

According to the Associated Press, a vague declaration would be accompanied by texts outlining what has been agreed and what has not. It is unclear whether those documents would qualify as a political framework, the goal that the ministers from seven states set themselves to reach by the Tuesday midnight deadline.

Allies with their fighter jets on Thursday joined Saudi Arabia in its “Decisive Storm” military operation, targeting Houthi rebels who had vowed to dislodge President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi.Al Arabiya News Channel reported that Saudi Arabia deployed 150,000 soldiers, 100 fighter jets and navy units in Yemen after Hadi pleaded with its Gulf ally for help against the Houthi rebels, who were advancing toward the southern city of Aden - where Hadi is based - to remove him from power in an attempted coup.The Royal Saudi Air Force took control of Yemen’s airspace early Thursday, and destroyed four Houthi jets and its surface-to-air (SAM) missiles.

MILITARY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR, 1ST PLACE | U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Josh Martin, 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron, Mi-17 aerial gunner, provides rear security on a Mi-17 helicopter, Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2014. Martin, a Rapid City, S.D., native, is deployed from the 55th Rescue Squadron, Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. The 438th AEAS and Afghan Air Force have combined efforts to train with about 300 Afghan commandos with the 8th Commandos Kandak. The training will enable Afghan helicopter aircrews to work seamlessly in support of ground forces in combat. Vernon Young/U.S. Air Force

(CNN) A sergeant wipes away a tear while kneeling before a battlefield cross at a Memorial Day ceremony for fallen service members at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.Seven Air Force recruits plunge into the deep end of a swimming pool, their hands and feet bound, in a training exercise meant to prepare them for stressful real-world operations.An Air Force captain jumps rope in a Texas gym despite missing her left leg, which was amputated after being diagnosed with cancer.These striking images are among the winning entries in the 2014 Military Photographer of the Year competition, open to photography by U.S. service members only. Winners of the annual contest, judged by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, were announced this month.

By a nearly 2 to 1 margin, Americans support the notion of striking a deal with Iran that restricts the nation’s nuclear program in exchange for loosening sanctions, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.

But the survey — released hours before Tuesday’s negotiating deadline — also finds few Americans are hopeful that such an agreement will be effective. Nearly six in 10 say they are not confident that a deal will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, unchanged from 15 months ago, when the United States, France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia reached an interim agreement with Iran aimed at sealing a long-term deal.

Overall, the poll finds 59 percent support an agreement in which the United States and its negotiating partners lift major economic sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. Thirty-one percent oppose a deal.

WNU Editor: The key part of this poll is not that most Americans support a nuclear deal .... it is that few Americans believe that such an agreement will be effective.

New footage from the Israeli Navy showcases the most advanced submarine in the IDF's arsenal: the Dolphin-class INS Tanin (Crocodile).

The nuclear-capable submarine boasts an array of sophisticated weaponry, as well as the latest in intelligence-gathering technology.

It stands at a whopping 68 meters long, compared to 57.3 meters on average for other submarines.

"The submarine will receive more long-term missions, and for a greater amount of time, than submarines" the IDF possesses, one navy officer explained, adding that as a result the Navy had "extended by several days our ability to operate silently and secretly in enemy territory."

Boeing 747 planes become Air Force One when the commander in chief is aboard. The current planes are getting old, and the Pentagon wants to buy new ones. CBS News' Mark Albert reports from behind the scenes on how for the first time the military may buy three 747s to replace the current two.Air Force One is the most recognizable aircraft in the world: six stories tall, two-thirds of a football field long and carrying immeasurable prestige. More than "Hail to the Chief," more than the ubiquitous Secret Service agents, even more than the famous seal, there is no more identifiable symbol of the mobile presidency than Air Force One.

* Three American armored convoys today converged in Czech Republic's capital on tour of Eastern Europe
* Vehicles have traveled more than 1,000 miles through Poland and the Baltic States as warning to Putin
* Countries in the region are nervous after Russian annexation of Crimea and military unrest in the area
* U.S. Army said that Nato maneuvers are 'a highly-visible demonstration of U.S. commitment' to the region

Flag-waving supporters of the United States flooded the streets of Prague today to cheer on a highly visible display of U.S. military might rolling through Europe.

Dozens of Stars and Stripes flags, as well as symbols of the Nato military alliance, thronged the capital of the Czech Republic as American soldiers were given a warm welcome by the locals.

Armored carriers, including Stryker multi-purpose fighting vehicles, rolled down the highways before coming to a temporary stop in the city's historic streets as part of an overt show of strength to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Russia is just about to unveil its latest armored platform, the T-14 tank. The tank, called the Armata, has largely been kept under wraps although technical details about the platform have steadily been emerging. The Armata is planned to feature considerable upgrades to the armor, engine, and armaments of the vehicle over previous Russian and Soviet tank models. Until the tank is actually seen in action, any claims as to the Armata's capabilities could be nothing more than propaganda, an overstatement reminiscent of Russia's improbable claims that it's working on a supersonic transport jet.

The Kremlin is cutting its initial production of the Sukhoi T-50 fighter by 75 percent amid cost overruns and rumored technical concerns – the same kind of issues that have plagued US development of the F-35.Moscow — Russia's ambitious T-50 fighter plane project was meant to develop a rival to two futuristic US jetfighters, the F-22 Raptor and the planned F-35 Lightning-II.But now, the T-50 appears to be rivaling the F-35 another way: in development troubles. The Kremlin is slamming the brakes on its "fifth generation" fighter program and cutting its initial rollout to a quarter of those originally planned.The decision seems a setback for Vladimir Putin's sweeping $800 billion rearmament program, a vital component of the wider effort to restore Russia to its Soviet-era status as a major global superpower. However, the sharp slowdown in plans to procure the sophisticated new jet may represent an outbreak of wisdom on the part of Russian military chiefs, who will remember how the USSR was driven into bankruptcy by engaging in an all-out arms race with the US.

While the world watched Russia’s North Fleet with trepidation as it launched surprise exercises near the Arctic Circle last week, Vladimir Putin has quietly been arming another area inside Europe’s borders: Kaliningrad, the Russian seaport city in a region sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, with convenient access to the Baltic Sea. Vessels from Russia’s Baltic Fleet have delivered fighter jets and Iskander missile launchers to the former German city, from where missiles could reach not just to Warsaw and Vilnius but Germany as well.Sources say that, with sea transport neither quick nor easy to organise, it’s clear the Russian armed forces had planned the recent delivery for some time. Indeed, the Russian army has spent the past several years equipping its Baltic territory with state-of-the-art weaponry. Regional security officials now call Kaliningrad a veritable arms depot. “The Russian armed forces have, for example, installed new S-400 [anti-aircraft missiles] there, which have an incredibly long range,” says Johan Wiktorin, a Swedish former military intelligence officer and author of the 2013 book Korridoren till Kaliningrad (The Corridor to Kaliningrad). The arming of Kaliningrad forms part of a 19-trillion-rouble (€296bn) plan to increase the share of modern weapons in the Russian armed forces’ arsenal from 10% to 70%.

Monday, March 30, 2015

MOSCOW: It's been a torrid time of late for the Russian economy as the fallout from Ukraine and tumbling oil prices have plunged the country into financial crisis.But an unexpected recent rebound by the ruble has partially reversed months of pain for the nosediving national currency and fired hope among harried officials in Moscow that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.Few analysts were betting on a bounce after the ruble lost over 40 percent of its value in 2014 and carried on the slump into this year.

WNU Editor: For the short term ..... I am not one of those who sees better times in Russia. There are a number of problems, and sanctions are not helping. But for the long term .... definitely .... I am optimistic on Russia's future because of its enormous resource base and the fact that it's younger generation .... Russia's future ..... have a far stronger desire to be a part of the West than my generation or Putin's.

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.